*Warning: Information in this article was obtained from various sources which at this time can not be “officially” verified. Many allegations made here are considered “hearsay”. Much of this information has been provided by persons who were under the influence of meth at the time, and therefore questionable (even tho the police RELY on such information in order to make arrests.) Some of it was discovered inadvertently, some educated guesses, and some common knowledge.

(01/12/2008)
A number of Roane County residents are facing lengthy prison terms for manufacturing meth.

A Spencer man has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.

David Rhodes, 46, was sentenced Friday by Chief United States District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin after Rhodes pleaded guilty on Sept. 6, 2007, admitting to the federal drug charge.

The conviction is related to an investigation conducted by the West Virginia State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The investigation revealed that Rhodes had engaged in a large scale methamphetamine production ring in Roane County and the surrounding area from 2003 to September 2006, according to federal officials.

Other residents convicted as a result of this investigation were Robert Michael Depue, sentenced to 84 months in prison; Chadrick L. Rogers, sentenced to 96 months in prison; Clyde McQuain, sentenced to 78 months in prison; Daniel Richard Turner, sentenced to 106 months in prison, and Christopher Coe, sentenced to 60 months in prison.

The CUFFED Fugitive Task Force arrested Rhodes early last year and charged him with making and distributing meth.

He was arrested, at that time, with two other Roane residents, Jennifer Conley, 36, and Larry McCormick, 58, of Roane County.

Conley and McCormick were both charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

Authorities said Rhodes has an “extensive criminal history” that includes making and distributing meth in the Spencer area.

In January, 2005, reports said Robert Michael DePue, then 26, of Gandeeville, pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture meth and possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

DePue was charged with making more than five grams of meth in 2004.

Chadrick L. Rogers of Newton, had been indicted on three charges in connection with using or carrying a firearm, allegedly in relation to trafficking methamphetamine.

Rogers and others allegedly knowingly and intentionally manufactured a quantity of methamphetamine, according to the United States Court in the Southern District of West Virginia in Huntington.

The court said in count two, he “did knowingly use and carry and brandish a firearm,” a J.P. Sauer and Sohn .357 magnum revolver, in relation to the drug trafficking crime.

Rogers allegedly possessed the firearm related to interstate commerce and possessed the firearm after he had been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

In 2004, the Times Record/Roane County Reporter, reported Clyde Earl McQuain, 50, and Kathern M. Craft, 39, were both charged with operating a clandestine drug lab after eight officers from three agencies entered their home at 6838 Clay Road.

Roane Sheriff Todd Cole said Craft was found in the basement where the lab was located. McQuain was in another part of the home.

Cole said items found in the home indicate the operation was not a new one. “It looked like they had been doing it for some time.”

Cole said employees of two local businesses, Wal-Mart and Go-Mart, where items to manufacture methamphetamine were purchased, helped tip off police.

“Without their help, we wouldn’t have gotten enough information to get a search warrant,” said Cole, according to the paper.

The federal grand jurors also indicted a Roane County man, charging him with having methamphetamine ingredients and illegally having firearms. In 2006, officials said Christopher Coe, then 33, of Spencer, had the meth-making materials.

Grand jurors alleged Coe had a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol in his possession while manufacturing the drug, with six other guns in his possession, despite a March 2000 conviction for burglary in Marion County.

He had been ordered not to possess firearms as a felon.

The six jail sentences for meth making are among more than 100 investigations, arrests and convictions in Roane County.

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First of all, unofficially, Mr. David Rhodes, whose “extensive criminal history” that includes making and distributing meth in the Spencer area”, is something which is NOT on record and would also be considered “hearsay”. Altho Dave Rhodes has in fact been a well known drug dealer for years in the Roane County area, dabbling in large amounts of Cocaine, Crack, and Meth, allegedly with hidden ties to TERRY WILLIAMS the mayor of Spencer, he has been allowed to continue for at least 30 years up until the present. There would be very little actual documentation of his “extensive criminal history” due to the fact that he has not been officially charged with ANYTHING up until these latest meth charges.

Many allegations by several individuals connected with Dave Rhodes include one common theme. It has been stated by many that Dave Rhodes was in fact the RING LEADER of this meth “ring” in the Roane County area, allegedly charging individuals for teaching them how to cook meth, setting them up with meth labs, and either helping to distribute the product or taking a cut of the profits. Other allegations and evidence points to his brother, DEAN RHODES, as having been involved in the CALHOUN COUNTY meth “ring”. At one point, the State Police were dispatched to Dean Rhodes’s home in the Millstone area in relation to a robbery. Altho it appears that there was an ACTIVE meth lab there at the time (some days you could smell it while driving by his house), the police knocked on his door and when there was no answer, they left and did not go back. The uninhabited house that was robbed was searched extensively by police and it was discovered that there had been a meth lab THERE as well. However, even tho there were eye witnesses to the removal of stolen property, no one was ever charged with the robbery OR the meth lab. And even tho police took statements regarding the facts of the robbery, no search warrant was ever issued for the Dean Rhodes residence…

Does anyone smell fish?

The other individuals whose lives have been ruined by a drug which I don’t believe anyone realized was so horribly addictive and distructive, are now being sentenced to longer terms than the individuals who helped them to get so firmly entrenched in the meth business for one reason and one reason only. MONEY…

I believe that THESE money and power-hungry individuals are the actual CRIMINALS. The others, those who got longer sentences, are VICTIMS. Victims of the RHODES “gang”, victims of the drug, victims of the police, and now victims of the “legal system”. But thru all this, what has actually been done to HELP these victims? And look at how much TIME has gone by since they were caught! Time enough to completely change a way of life and get back on the right track. But unfortunately, this is not the way it works, and no matter HOW much better these people are, they STILL must be punished AGAIN, by being incarcerated for YEARS, even tho some of them have been out of jail for YEARS awaiting their sentencing and have not caused a single problem. Why? Because they are NOT criminals. Perhaps they were rebellious, perhaps naive, maybe ignorant of the severe health consequences until it was too late, perhaps suffering from lack of money to pay the bills. They were MANIPULATED and USED by people who KNEW what they were doing, and then INFORMED ON by someone who HELPED put them in that situation, so that he could get less “time”. Someone please tell me, WHERE is the justice???